Monthly Archive for May, 2010
The Google Android mobile platform is well known for being one of the most intriguing and feature packed operating systems ever relapsed. Since the OS is open source, there are plenty of impressive apps that fully utilize the hardware and software features present in Android devices –giving the handset an unprecedented range of capabilities. Of course, not all apps are made to be outright functional; some of these Android apps are just outright fun to use. Here are some of our favorite Android apps to play around with.
The Ghost Radar may seem like a cheap gag tool, but it does function in a very eerie manner. The handset tries to detect information using the smartphones’ available hardware such as microphone, WiFi, Bluetooth and other transceiver-type components. When the readings go beyond the normal rate, the spike will cause the ghost radar to give users an approximate location of the source of the anomaly. According to developer Spud Pickles, the app is effective for up to a range of about 50 yards. No guarantees that you will actually find ghosts with this, but it certainly makes for an interesting app to walk around empty hallways with.
If you do not feel like hunting down ghosts, you might want to chase after criminals in your neighborhood –or at least know their faces well enough to know that you have to avoid them. RJGII has developed the Most Wanted app which gives you an updated list of known criminals and updates from the most wanted lists. On a side note, the app also lists missing persons and children, which might be pretty useful when you are deciding whether to call the police or the local social office.
According to the developers, these two apps are compatible with the upcoming Android 2.2 Froyo.
Tags: apps, free-games, Google, Google-Android
It has been confirmed that Steve Jobs will be taking over the big Apple event this coming June 7 (which everyone already expected) and many are expecting that he might be unveiling the next generation Apple iPhone handset and possibly, announcing the worldwide launch of the Apple iPad touch screen tablet.
For those who have been waiting for the tablet to be released in the UK, it seems that a little bit more of waiting is in order as rumors that the May 28 date will be pushed back further. While there is no official word yet from Apple, the online store has already indicated that iPad shipping will start on June 7. Hopefully, Apple already has enough stocks of the touch screen tablet to accommodate the large projected demand.
The next generation Apple iPhone on the other hand has been on the news quite a lot lately. But instead of having its specs revealed, most of the coverage on the device was concerning how much trouble it caused after a prototype unit has been left behind in some bar and ended up in the hands of a Gizmodo tech blogger. Anyway, it has been reported that the handset will come packed with a new front facing camera, a larger touch screen display and from recent images, two color variations: white and classic black.
Despite the many big announcements from Google at the recently concluded Google I/O event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is hardly unfazed. According to the man himself, there will be plenty of big news from Apple this coming June and they will be matching Google’s new features –if not surpassing them.
Still, we highly doubt that Apple can match the Google Android’s support for Flash. After the fallout between Apple and Adobe, Flash compatibility has become the one major feature that Apple will no longer have as an option.
Tags: Apple, Apple-iPad, AppleiPhone
If you have tried playing this game, then the first thing you might think is that it’s a port of Space Invaders. Actually, it is not. Radiant is a completely new game from Hexage and is a major tribute to the old arcade shooters in the style of Space Invaders, Centipede and Galaga and more. What might throw players off are the blatant duplicates of the Invaders from Space Invaders, but aside from that, this game delivers plenty of original space shooting graphic bliss.
Playing Radiant is easy; simply steer your ship around while shooting down aliens, UFOs and giant space rocks while pickup up the power up items that appear along the way. In terms of skill, the first few stages are easy to breeze by, but later parts of the game will make newbies cringe in horror at the oh-so-expected bullet hell waves. Still, there is nothing in Radiant that cannot be beat without a little practice and the game is made in such a way that repeated playthroughs do not feel so bad.
One interesting aspect about this game is that players can actually upgrade the basic spaceship. This means that handling the later and larger waves of enemies and tougher bosses can become easy if player plan their upgrades carefully. Of course, the best upgrades to get are those that suits one’s play style.
The only downside to this game title is that it does get a little straining on the eyes. The bloom and glow effect of the play ship and the enemies (as well as the laser effects and other things) tend to burn the eyes –especially when playing in dark areas. The audio also gets a little bland, but the sound effects are strong and crisp –with the rewarding explosions for every alien ship you bring down.
Tags: Android, Android-apps, games, Google, Radiant
Instead of wasting time, effort and valuable resources on pursuing Google with a criminal case –in regards to the unsecured WiFi network data that has been collected by the street car, the Information Commissioner has seen it fit to allow Google to pursue its own solutions in deleting or destroying the reported 600GB of information than has been gathered from the UK and many other countries.
The refusal to “declare war” against Google might be considered by some people as a very passive and irresponsible manner to handle the situation, but with the data already long been in Google’s hands, there is no real way to ensure that interference from any government group would actually help. In many cases, this is a wise step to take.
Google’s Eric Schmidt has already been the first to step up and admit the problem and what the company will do to remedy the situation. Many other countries are already investigating the case against Google as well. With a company that is already cooperating with the government and is pursuing its own internal solution processes, stepping in would only lead to further delays. The Google Street Car was originally meant to make a visual map of streets for the Street View web service as well as log a map of WiFi networks.
Still, the fact that such a problem existed in the first place shows that there is a need for people to become more educated about data security and internet protection practices. Many users of WiFi routers are still not familiar even with the most basic safety procedures. In many ways, the world is lucky that it was Google’s street car that collected the data –at least Google is willing to step up and take the responsibility.
Had the data been collected by another party –one with malicious motives, then that is the real cause for concern.
Tags: Google, Google-Street-View, ICO, Wifi
Thanks to the prevalence of smart phones in society, more and more people have access to games and other media anytime, anywhere. The question now is: what do people prefer to do when they are on the road?
According to game developer PopCap, people prefer to play games when they are commuting. While this statement is something that many of us in the tech industry could already predict, it does have a bit more clout when the statement is backed by research data that verifies the claim.
Anyway, the survey encompassed a total of 1,500 adults who were asked regarding their mobile phone usage patterns and preferences. As it turns out, people on the move prefer to have a good game to play over having a good book to read. While it may seem like people prefer the transient and less ‘intellectually’ stimulating task of playing games, the matter is more of time management and convenience than it is a statement about the decreasing lack of interest in literary culture.
The big issue here is that people who were asked were commuters, and when commuting people do not necessarily have the frame of mind and the time to focus and appreciate a book. Reading a small news article would be okay, but digesting the events of a whole chapter is different. While there are people who are comfortable reading a book, this is a feat that is not common to most people. Had the study taken into account people who are travelling very long distances, the number of individual that would appreciate a good book would certainly be more.
At the same time, the statement can also be misleading in the way that it also generalizes games as being less than books as a medium. What people fail to realize that not all games are casual; in many ways, there are also games that are not suitable for quick rounds of play –though these titles can only be played in home consoles and desktop computers.
Tags: ebooks, games, phone-usage, PopCap, smartphones
Google’s translation service has far surpassed many other similar services on the internet. With the large span of their operations as well as an extensive language database, Google’s translation features are among the most sophisticated and reliable in the planet. Of course, it comes with the territory, Google’s search engine is the fastest and most used of all.
Their translations service has since expanded heavily to mobile phones –which are often the go-to gadget of choice. Google Goggles received an update that enabled for the visual scanning and translation of text. Google voice translate also received its second batch of supported languages. Of course, the core Google Translate function is still updated, in fact, five new languages were just added in recently.
Research scientist Ashish Venugopal makes a statement:
“At Google, we are always trying to make information more accessible, whether by adding auto-captioning on YouTube and virtual keyboards to search or by providing free translation of text, websites and documents with Google Translate. In 2009, we announced the addition of our first ‘alpha’ language, Persian, on Google Translate. Today, we are excited to add five more alpha languages: Azerbaijani, Armenian, Basque, Urdu and Georgian — bringing the total number of languages on Google Translate to 57.”
“These languages are available while still in alpha status. You can expect translations to be less fluent than for our other languages, but they should still help you understand the multilingual web. We are working hard to ‘graduate’ these new language(s) out of alpha status, just as we did some time ago with Persian. You can help us improve translation quality as well. If you notice an incorrect translation, we invite you click ‘Contribute a better translation’. If you are a translator, then you can contribute translation memories with the Translator Toolkit. This helps us build better machine translation systems especially for languages that are not well represented on the web.”
“Collectively, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Georgian and Urdu have roughly 100 million speakers. We hope that these speakers can now more easily access the entire multilingual web in their own language.”
Tags: Google, Google-Goggles, Google-Talk, Google-Translate
We all know that the general public is not to happy the announcement that Facebook is refusing to install a panic button for users. Of course, many people also do not understand the concept of deterrence on the internet and fail to realize that things that apply to the real world do not necessarily apply as well on the internet.
The bottom line here is that despite the good intentions of charities, the police and everyone else, it is Facebook that truly understands the nature of the internet. Take it from them -they are the ones with a social networking site with millions of users.
Now, it has been said that Facebook’s current actions are simply going around the real requirement (which is to add a panic button) and that the social networking site is simply doing things in order to look like they are doing something productive. This perspective however, could not be more wrong.
Facebook’s decision to provide proper help guides and detailed content regarding what people can do when confronted with offensive content or accounts that clearly violate rules is far more productive than making a panic button graphic.
The link is more than sufficient, and in the internet, it is knowing what a link does and what it is for that gets people to use, not bright shiny images (face it, when did you last click a bright shiny pop up ad?).
Now, the biggest insult to Facebook is calling their offer of free advertising as a “cynical approach”. Charities should know better than to snap the hand that is being extended out to them. Advertising space on a social networking site is a prime spot, and no spot is more “prime” than Facebook.
Tags: Facebook, online-safety, social-networking
